


In the Sith's Den

by ChristineThalassinou1990



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Caring Dooku, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), Physical Abuse, Qui-Gon Jinn Lives, Qui-Gon needs a hug, Sith Dooku, Writing Exercise, hurt Qui-Gon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-10-26 12:42:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17746097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChristineThalassinou1990/pseuds/ChristineThalassinou1990
Summary: Naboo never happened, and Qui-Gon left the Order. Almost a decade later, in the Clone Wars, General Grievous finds the hiding ex-Jedi, who is completely unaware of the conflict, by pure luck and takes him to Serenno, thinking that his Lord Dooku might find his prisoner interesting...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's just an idea that didin't leave me alone recently, so I thought I'd try to do something with it. In this universe, Dooku and Qui are much younger, Dooku's around 50, Qui's around 40.

Count Dooku did a spectacular job at hiding his surprise when he recognized the poor guy Grievous was currently abusing. The kyborg had always been cruel with his prisoners, but his enthusiasm in this case told Dooku that the captive was somewhat special. And, as it turned out, he was right.

Grievous hated the Jedi above all other beings, and now he captured one, practically using the poor thing as a boxing bag. Normally, Dooku wouldn't really mind, for he himself wasn't a big fan of the Order, but now he felt he must intervene. The abused prisoner was Dooku's very first apprentice from back then: Qui-Gon Jinn.

The Count had no idea how Grievous could even find his former Padawan; almost a decade ago, Qui-Gon left the Order as well and simply vanished. No one knew where he went or what he was doing, Dooku wasn't even sure he was alive. And now he was their prisoner.

"Careful, General. I would like to interrogate this prisoner as well, and for that, I need him being able to talk" Dooku said, his face and voice impassive but held an authority Grievous wouldn't dare to defy.

"As you wish, my Lord. Shall I throw him into a cell?" the kyborg asked, still holding Qui-Gon by his throat.

The ex-Jedi tried to fight for air, but his struggle was pathetically weak; Dooku couldn't just stand and watch it.

"First, you shall not 'throw' him to anywhere, just lock him up in one of the cells. Second, don't choke him to death before I could speak to him. That would make me... quite disappointed."

"Of course, my Lord, as you command" Grievous retreated immediately, now grabbing the barely conscious Qui-Gon's shoulder; Dooku heard the bone cracking even from where he was standing, and the pain jerked the ex-Jedi awake for a brief moment, making him crying out.

He struggled, tried to break free, but Dooku knew he didn't have the slightest chance against Grievous, who was ten times stronger than an ordinary human, so the Count chose to knock him out with a well-timed Force-suggestion. Qui-Gon went entirely limp in a second, but Grievous didn't miss a beat. He just threw the unconscious Jedi on his back and headed down to the mansion's dungeon where the prison cells were.

 ⃰

After a few hours, when Dooku was sure Grievous wasn't anywhere near the dungeon, he went to check on Qui-Gon; his ex-Padawan's injuries looked really bad, and he knew for a fact that Grievous was a sadistic beast who loved causing others pain.

When he stepped into the cell, turning on the lights half-power, he saw that Qui-Gon was still knocked out cold, lying on the floor facedown, his left arm pinned beneath him in a painful-looking angle. Dooku was quite sure it was broken. He crouched down and as careful as possible he moved Qui-Gon into a more comfortable position, then reached out to him through the Force, trying to touch his mind and wake him up. He wanted to be sure he's going to recover.

Soon enough, Qui-Gon began stirring, groaning loudly as the pain got stronger. He struggled to open his eyes, and when he managed to do so, he just blinked at Dooku in utter confusion for a moment.

"Master...? What... what are you doing here? Where am I?" he asked, his voice hoarse with pain and exhaustion.

"You're on Serenno, in my mansion" Dooku answered, trying to figure out how to explain the situation to his obviously oblivious ex-Padawan. "Do you remember what happened to you?"

"Well... not really. There was a scary droid-like creature... It somehow knew I was a Jedi... and tried to kill me. Then the next thing I knew I was on a ship... then here. I just don't get it" Qui-Gon murmured, again slipping back into unconsciousness.

Staying awake was an obvious effort to him, so Dooku let him drifting off and after using some of his healing powers on his former Padawan, he left the cell, assured that Qui-Gon was going to be alright. He had several broken or fractured bones and countless bruises but nothing more serious.

However, after a few days, thanks to the lack of proper food, the constant pain, the cold cell and his general weakness, Qui-Gon fell ill, so much that Dooku decided to move him into a room close to his own instead of letting him suffer in his cell. That clearly pissed Grievous off, but he knew much better than to question his Lord's decisions.

⃰

Qui-Gon woke to the feeling of a rough, warm hand on his face. He sighed, instinctively snuggling closer to the touch, but the hand retreated, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself looking up into his former master's unreadable face.

"How're you feeling?" Dooku asked, his voice impassive, but Qui-Gon had a hunch it was a conscious effort on the Count's part.

He still didn't have any idea what was going on, so he thought safer to play along for the time being.

"Very tired" he murmured into the pillow, and he wasn't lying at all. His fever just broke, mere hours ago, and he felt completely drained and utterly exhausted. He could've slept for the rest of his life right now. "Would you please... finally tell me what's going on here?" he risked the question.

His former master sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry you've caught up in this conflict... I didn't want it to happen at all. But since you're here, it means that you're a prisoner of war."


	2. Chapter 2

Qui-Gon stared up at Dooku in stunned silence for long minutes. For he'd heard fleeting words only about the current conflict in his voluntary exile, now the reality of it punched him right in the face; hard. Especially the part that it seemed he and his former master were on the opposite sides.

"What... what war, exactly?" he asked, swallowing. "What the hell happened to this sith-damned Galaxy?"

"The Republic is dying" Dooku answered, sighing again; his concern seemed genuine. "So many systems, including my own homeworld, decided that they don't wish to be a part of it. The Republic answered to this movement with aggression."

"Then why don't you try to help from the inside? Why escaping?" Qui-Gon asked, still trying to wrap his mind around the situation; that was worse than his worst imagination.

"I am not escaping!" Dooku hissed, and Qui-Gon instinctively jerked away from him, startled by his former master's angry response. "I'm trying to save what I can from a ship that is doomed to sink. There's nothing I could do to save it."

"But you don't even..."

The death-glare Dooku sent him made Qui-Gon shut up immediately. He wasn't a man easily intimidated, but Dooku radiated a kind of authority that demanded obedience from everyone, with very few exceptions. And Qui-Gon, as Dooku's Padawan, was conditioned from a very early age to respect his master's authority; as it seemed, this conditioning still held.

"Don't express opinion about something you don't know enough of to understand" Dooku said, his voice softer than Qui-Gon would've expected it to be. "You weren't there to watch useless, corrupt Senators arguing about everything but the pending catastrophe, caring only about their own interests while thousands of planets were suffering and begging for aid to them. And they did nothing to help. The Republic is no longer functional; so it's time for it to disappear."

"And change into... what? An anarchy? Or an empire ruled by you?" Qui-Gon didn't feel well enough to argue with his former master about politics and new world order, but he knew that he couldn't let this just be.

He agreed that the Republic was far from perfect, and it needed a serious reformation, but he believed that it needed to happen without the destruction of the Republic; and that's where he confronted with Dooku.

"Neither. But the Republic cannot exist any longer. There are too many systems and far too many different interests. The whole thing is crumbling down, and more and more systems realise that fact, trying to get out while they still can."

Qui-Gon desperately tried to make any sense of this. The world as he knew it was dying, and his former master was telling him that it was natural and nothing could be done to prevent it.

"Many will die in this war... Are you _sure_ there's no way to help them? To stop this war?"

Dooku couldn't help smiling at this; Qui-Gon hadn't changed a bit. He was still too innocent for this cruel Galaxy.

"Oh, my Padawan... Your naivety is adorable" he sighed, and the fondness in his expression actually surprised Qui-Gon. "I do hope that someday you'll know better. The Galaxy just doesn't work like this."

"Master..."

"Enough for now" Dooku interrupted, holding up a hand. "You need rest. We'll talk later, I promise."

Before he could've answered, Qui-Gon felt a gentle Force-suggestion, and a minute later, he fell asleep.

⃰

He woke again almost a day later, feeling much better. He had a guess that Dooku used a considerable amount of his healing powers on him, because even his broken bones were almost completely healed, he could move without too much pain.

He got up quickly and didn't even bother to try to find something warmer to wear; he was ready to escape from here in nothing else but a leggings and a T-shirt. He felt much more important to get back into the Republic and help in the effort to save it. He couldn't let it just be destroyed.

To his surprise, he could open the door without any problem, so after he looked around carefully, Qui-Gon headed running toward the mansion's nearest side-gate, hoping that he would find a private landing pad with a fighter or something that he could borrow. However, before he could've even turned at the first corner, he sensed something moving with inhuman speed behind him, then the next thing he knew was smashing against the wall with bruising force. He collapsed, whimpering and trying to curl up against the pain.

"Well, well, well... What do we have here? The Jedi scum would flee" Qui-Gon heard from somewhere above his head.

When he opened his eyes, he saw nobody else than the scary, batshit-crazy kyborg that had almost killed him once already.


	3. Chapter 3

“Perhaps I should skin you alive” the kyborg purred, and Qui-Gon could’ve sworn that the thing was purring with sick anticipation. “Or gut you with my bare hands.”

“But you shall do no such things, General” a deep, velvet voice spoke up, with an unmistakable warning edge in it.

“Of course, my Lord, forgive me” the kyborg retreated immediately, and now Qui-Gon spotted Dooku walking toward them, a tall, lean figure with a flowing cape behind him; and with such radiating power that even Grievous, who wasn’t a Force-sensitive, felt it, and feared it, with good reason.

Qui-Gon slowly sat up, whimpering as his head throbbed painfully because of his collision with the wall. His nose was bleeding, as well as his lower lip which was split, but otherwise he was unharmed. He could’ve got much worse from a stone wall.

Grievous moved toward the sitting Jedi, but before he could’ve taken even a step, Dooku grabbed him by his throat with the Force and threw him across the corridor like he would throw a paper jet.

“I’ve already told you, General, that this prisoner belongs to me, and to me only. Yet, you’re defying my orders right before me” Dooku said, his voice low and just a little bit threatening; but even Qui-Gon shuddered, in spite of him not being the target of this threatening.

“Yes, my Lord, I apologize for my transgression...” Grievous stammered but Dooku just grabbed him again, making him choke on his words; quite literally.

“Disobey me once again, and you’ll curse the day you were born” Dooku stated in a matter-of-fact manner and watched as Grievous stumbled away in the corridor.

Dooku waited until the kyborg disappeared then turned to his former Padawan, helping him to stand up.

“I guess I have to thank you for saving my ass...” Qui-Gon muttered, his voice a bit blurry due to his still bleeding nose.

“It’s nothing” Dooku said as they slowly walked back into Qui-Gon’s room, the Count supporting the slightly dizzy ex-Jedi.

Soon Qui-Gon was sitting on the bed and tried to stop the bleeding of his nose with the towel Dooku handed him.

“Hurts?”

“Not too much... I’m gonna be okay” Qui-Gon shrugged; he was grateful that his nose didn’t break again.

Dooku used some of his healing power nonetheless, not being able to just stand by when he could do something to help his former Padawan.

“You wanted to escape, right?” he asked, looking at Qui-Gon sharply after he was done.

“Why, did you expect me to just chill in this nice mansion and do nothing while you’re plotting a war against the Republic?” Qui-Gon asked back with utter disbelief.

Dooku sighed and shook his head.

“As I’ve said earlier, the Republic is on the edge of total collapse, there’s no way to save it...”

“Say you” Qui-Gon interrupted, but a death-glare from his former master silenced him almost immediately.

“...and it would make me content to know that you don’t run into your doom.”

Dooku meant it, Qui-Gon felt it clearly; but still.

“And how are you planning to prevent it?” he asked.

“Look” Dooku sighed again, this time a bit irritated. “You can just stay here and do your best to not get into trouble, or we can play it the other way, with you in a cold, small cell. It’s up to you. Don’t forget, you’re a prisoner here.”

Qui-Gon swallowed, the weight of the situation slowly crushing down on him.

“But... you can gain nothing by this, you have to see that. I’m no longer a Jedi, so they wouldn’t give a shit about me. I have no family, no connections... I’m just a nobody so... please let me go... Please?” he whispered, and his voice cracked a bit in the end.

Dooku just stared at him for a while, and that gaze made him feel even more insignificant.

“Begging doesn’t suit you well, Qui-Gon” the Count said finally, with a strange mixture of pity and contempt. “Stay here and stay out of trouble. I don’t want to harm you but have no illusions: I shall if you give me a reason.”

A second later Dooku walked out of the room, leaving behind a stunned and scared Qui-Gon.


	4. Chapter 4

Soon after Dooku left, Qui-Gon, feeling tired and still a bit dizzy, curled up into a tight ball on the bed and pulled the blanket around himself, burying his head into the pillow. He just felt awful. He’d understood by now that not only Dooku was up to destroy the Republic but he’d fallen to the Dark Side as well; that little performance with Grievous was proof enough. So Qui-Gon was stuck with a Sith Lord; that fact was almost scarier than Grievous, who was the most decent nightmare-fuel Qui-Gon had seen in decades.

Still, somehow he didn’t feel like he was entitled to complain... too much. Dooku hadn’t hurt him, yet, moreover, he saved him from a terrible fate between that batshit-crazy kyborg’s hands. And Qui-Gon couldn’t say he had more connection to the Jedi than his former master. He hadn’t even identified himself as a Jedi for a long time by now.

That trail of thought evoked memories he’d rather forget, and this, combined with everything else that had happened lately, finally made him break under the pressure. He hid under the blanket, curled up even further and just let his tears flow, sniffling quietly into the soft pillow.

⃰

A couple of rooms away Count Dooku felt his former Padawan’s increasing distress clearly through the Force; and what was more surprising, through their long dormant training bond as well. Now this bond came to life again with such intensity that it caught Dooku completely off-guard. After thinking about it for a while, Dooku decided against severing it, counting it as a handy asset for keeping his eyes on Qui-Gon; and not only to know when he was about to try to escape again but, however much Dooku was reluctant to admit it, to know how he was feeling in general.

The supposed-to-be Sith Lord just couldn’t make himself not to care about the well-being of his very first apprentice. With that uneasy discovery, Dooku got up with a sigh and went to find out what was wrong with Qui-Gon; for something was very wrong, he felt it for sure.

When he walked into his ex-Padawan’s room, the first thing Dooku saw was the bundle of the blanket, and as he sneaked closer, he heard the soft noise of crying coming from it. The situation was just all too familiar, and unwelcome memories came back to the Count. He remembered being helpless many times when something hurt Qui-Gon very much, and his Padawan cried himself to sleep, lonely, because Dooku couldn’t do anything to comfort him.

Even he was the very reason of the hurt, sometimes, however, never on purpose. But he had to admit that he often didn’t understand his Padawan; they were too different in their personality. Qui-Gon a kind, gentle, empathic soul while Dooku a determined, pragmatic and sometimes even cold Jedi who’d struggled with serious trust issues from an early age. Qui-Gon needed warmth and closeness Dooku couldn’t give him, and even though he was aware of the problem and tried to do something about it, their relationship was far from ideal.

Dooku settled on the bed, feeling awkward; but he just couldn’t simply turn away and leave.

“Qui-Gon?”

The crying stopped, and soon the distressed ex-Jedi got out of his hiding place beneath the blanket, sitting up but not quite willing to look at his former mentor. However, Dooku didn’t need to see his face to know that Qui-Gon was a mess. He felt it clearly through the Force, it flooded the room in waves.

“What’s wrong? Why so distraught?” Dooku was sure it wasn’t the captivity, or just partially; Qui-Gon was in such a situation for numerous times, with Dooku and by himself as well, and he’d never broken down like this.

“Why would you care...?” Qui-Gon shrugged, trying to choke back a strangled sob. “I’m just your prisoner, remember?”

“Yes, but...” Dooku stopped, trying to collect his thoughts; the memories of sleepless nights when he’d listened to his Padawan’s heartbroken sobbing and couldn’t do a damn thing to ease his pain were still haunting him, whether he admitted it or not. “I’ve failed to help you so many times. Perhaps... I could help now.”

That was so unexpected that it finally made Qui-Gon look up at Dooku. Then, however, he just shook his head helplessly, tears running down on his face.

“I don’t think you could...”

The next question must’ve been a suggestion from the Force, for Dooku wouldn’t have thought about it by himself, at least not now.

“Why did you leave the Order?” he inquired, and when as a first reaction Qui-Gon just cried even harder, Dooku knew he’d hit a painful nerve; although, he hoped that talking about it would help.

“I... I didn’t leave. They kicked me out” Qui-Gon said at last, his voice still dangerously shaky.

Well, that was new; Dooku was barely able to hide his utter surprise. The ‘official’ version was definitely claiming that Qui-Gon left out of his own will.

“What happened?” he asked.

At first it seemed Qui-Gon wouldn’t answer; it was clearly painful for him. But then he took a deep breath and replied.

“I had a Padawan and he... he accused me of jeopardizing our mission for my personal interests, and I think the Council just needed an excuse to get rid of me. There wasn’t even a normal trial... They kicked me out an hour after we got back from that mission.”

Dooku, knowing his former Padawan, was sure that these so called ‘personal interests’ were only to help some pathetic life form in need, and there was nothing selfish or ‘personal’ in his actions at all. He himself couldn’t really comprehend it, but he wouldn’t have ever wanted Qui-Gon to be punished because of it.

“I’m sorry to hear that” Dooku said, overcoming his aversion of showing affection for a minute and stroking Qui-Gon’s shaking shoulder, trying to be comforting.

Meanwhile, he was already plotting the demise of this yet unknown Padawan.


End file.
